Listening While Reading: A Four Year Study.

Abstract

IN A REVIEW of world literature on the study of reading, Downing (1973) emphasizes the difficulties children encounter in learning to read because of their doubt and confusion about the relationship between the printed shape of words, their sounds, and their meanings. To strengthen the association between print and sound, Katz and Deutsch (1964) and Wolpert (1971) recommend the dual use of auditory and visual modalities. Moffett(1973) also indicates that listening while reading has great potential as a means of acquiring literacy. C. Chomsky (1972), in a study of language acquisition, reports a direct correlation between the amount of reading exposure and language development and recommends a broad scope of stimulating reading with rich language and varied instructional level. We have embarked, therefore, on a Listen-Read (L-R) Program where children are exposed to a great variety of language in sound and print through the coordinated use of books and listening centers. The activity has been devised as an adjunct to the classroom reading program and has been introduced on an experimental basis in grades one to four. The goals are to enhance reading and language development. A report of the first year's work has been published (Schneeberg and Mattleman, 1973). L-R was initiated at an innercity school in Philadelphia in the fall of 1971. Over a four year period, the pilot study was extended to five in nercity schools and data gathered on two groups of students who had L-R for two consecutive years: grades